Field Notes Color Comparison: Pink

After white and yellow, I’m choosing pink for my next installment of Field Notes color comparisons. Maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is coming up. Who knows? 😁

Pink is a very uncommon color in Field Notes. Even when you do find a pink Field Notes, it’s more likely to be just one of the colors in an edition. So, can you identify the three editions pictured above?
 

COLORS Editions

As of this writing (early February 2016), there has been only one COLORS edition where you can find a solid pink Field Notes memo book, and that is Unexposed (Fall 2014). Pink was one of the six possible colors in Unexposed, and it’s a very bold, neon color. There’s a semblance of pink in some of the Two Rivers (Spring 2015) prints and in the Workshop Companion (Summer 2015) “Painting” book, but the base colors in those were not pink, and for my comparison here, I’m sticking to solid covers.

Non-COLORS Editions

Even outside of COLORS, pink Field Notes are still hard to find. In my collection, there are only two editions that I can describe as “pink”:

• Capsule Show SS14 (from 2013)
• XOXO Festival 2013

Other “pink” Field Notes that I know of:

• Point Oh! Edition (3-pack with 3 different colors): one of them is a pastel pink book (French Pop-Tone “Pink Lemonade”, the same as Capsule SS14’s cover)
• Starbucks Roastery “Capitol Hill” Edition (5-pack with 5 different colors): one of them is a magenta book.

These two won’t be discussed in this post because I don’t have them. If you know of other pink editions, do chime in!

From left: XOXO 2013, Unexposed, and Capsule SS14. In reality, Capsule doesn't look as light as pictured. It just looks very light against the other two.

Comparison

So, I have a total of three “pink” Field Notes that I will compare in this post.

• Unexposed
• Capsule SS14
• XOXO 2013

While Unexposed’s pink is a very bold, bright medium pink, Capsule SS14 is a light, pastel pink. As for the XOXO 2013 edition, it’s more likely to be called magenta or fuchsia. But I think it can also be described as a deep pink, and since there aren’t that many in my collection that lean towards the “pink” family, I’m including it here. When seen next to Unexposed, the XOXO definitely looks much cooler, almost like purple.

Both Capsule and Unexposed’s covers are 100#C, while XOXO’s cover feels the thinnest (80#C). Capsule, which uses French Paper Pop-Tone in Pink Lemonade, feels the thickest and the stiffest. Unexposed’s cover paper (Sappi McCoy) actually feels more pliable and durable, due to its soft-coating. And because of this coating, Unexposed is the only one among this group to have a semi-glossy finish. Unexposed is also different from the other two in that its inside cover is not pink but yellow (matching the text color on its front cover). Capsule’s Pop-Tone cover is special in that it’s pink all the way through the paper (as seen in the side-view photo below), not white stock printed with pink on the outside like in the other two editions.

From top: Capsule SS14, Unexposed, XOXO 2013. 

Innards are all different! From top: dot grid in Capsule SS14, graph grid in XOXO 2013, and reticle grid in Unexposed.

What’s really neat about the non-COLORS pink editions is that both of their body papers are printed in light pink. XOXO is graph grid in Pantone 236 light pink, and Capsule is dot grid in Pantone 7422. Unexposed is reticle grid in Pantone Cool Gray 2. Another noteworthy point: the 3-packs that XOXO and Capsule came in were not assortments of colors. They were all pink, unlike Unexposed.

Last comparison note: all three editions are bound by silver staples! ٩(ᴖᴗᴖ*)۶

Capsule SS14 is the only one with extra graphics on the back cover: “Vive la différence”. It’s printed in metallic ink but the shimmer is very subtle.

My favorite among these pink Field Notes is the Capsule SS14 edition. I like how the thick, matte French cover in soft pink, the pink dot grid, and the warm metallic ink all come together. It's a very sophisticated looking edition, and it feels quite substantial in your hands.

Am I a big fan of the color pink? Not really but I enjoy it occasionally. I think the colors like Unexposed’s pink and the XOXO 2013 can be a lot of fun, and a COLORS edition entirely dedicated to pink would a nice change of pace. And there are so many delicious shades of pink to work with! Field Notes, may I suggest French Pop-Tone in “Razzle Berry” or “Cotton Candy”? Judging from the Field Notes 2014 recap video, maybe there'll be enough “dudes” who would like it too?

Do YOU want to see more pink Field Notes?

Field Notes Colors: Unexposed

The 2014 fall edition of Field Notes COLORS is called Unexposed, and here they are EXPOSED! Should I be providing a spoiler alert here? …Nah.

When Unexposed was first announced in early September, all we saw was a single image of a 3-pack wrapped in black. Mysterious! Turns out, that was the intention, to keep the content veiled until you open it yourself. The only information that was provided was that there were 6 different memo books available and that each 3-pack would have 3 random, different books among those 6. That would be a total of 20 different combinations. The suspense was exciting for me, and I tried to not browse any tags on Twitter and Instagram, until my own subscription mail arrived. I was glad that lucky folks who got their copies first were considerate enough and only posted pictures of their unopened packs. I was pretty successful in avoiding any spoilers, until I saw this tweet. Why did you retweet it so early, Field Notes, why?

Obviously, I didn’t try hard enough.

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Black sleeve instead of a belly band

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With sleeve open

Great contrast between opaque black and vibrant colors

Silver staples.

Oh well, I still got a kick out of opening my own two 3-packs when they arrived because of their sheer shocking colors. I don’t think pictures can really capture how conspicuous they are. My initial reaction:

• My eyes, my eyes! They hurt!
• Thank goodness, they’re back to the original size. 
• Darn, I’m missing one color. But not bad! 5 out of 6 colors!
• Whoa, they did pink! I thought I’d never see it in COLORS.
• Uh, there’s a registered trademark symbol on the covers now. 
• I want to cut out belly bands out of the black sleeves. Just because.
• Staples are better positioned in this edition. 

Colors for background and text are reversed inside each book. Blue book has blue text on pink background. Do not attempt to read the text.

My eyes find these front three to be the worst offenders, the leftmost one (green book with orange inside) being the most painful, then the orange book (blue inside) and then the blue book (pink inside). Again, do not attempt to read these. Just don’t.

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Backs!

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From top: inside of pink, yellow, purple, green, orange and blue books.

Soft-touch coating is slightly less “rubbery” than Drink Local, in my opinion.

Firsts

Unexposed is not the first edition to feature 6 different colors. National Crop (Spring 2012) and Drink Local (Fall 2013) are very notable earlier examples. Drink Local also beats Unexposed in getting the soft-touch coating. And Unexposed is not the first to feature reticle graph grid; we saw it previously on Night Sky (summer 2013). Additionally, this is the second time COLORS is printed by eDOC Communications, after Arts & Sciences (Summer 2014).

What’s interesting about Unexposed is that this is the first time in COLORS history where the colors were kept secret AND each pack is a random set of colors. I don’t know how I feel about that. It took me 3 packs to get all 6 colors. If I were to look at it glass half empty, the uniqueness of the edition was focused a bit much on the marketing aspect. The word gimmicky comes to mind. BUT! If I were to look at it glass half full, this edition is awesome because you get 6 new colors in one release. To quote the “Anonymous” Field Notes Enthusiast: Holy ████ !!

Best part of the Unexposed promo video: “Anonymous” Field Notes Enthusiast. :D (image captured from this video)

The anticipation before the reveal, the shock of the colors and the random factor... it was all exciting but the novelty of it doesn’t last very long, unless you really love neon colors.  I like them *shrug* (see how it ranks in my book). But I also don’t like soft-touch covers very much. I’m hoping the coating doesn’t turn into weird colors like it did in Drink Local. And I’m not going to get into the whole collectibility of this edition. There are many kinds of collectors, and thinking makes my head hurt, which it already is from these neon colors.

Moving on. Other noteworthy “firsts” in the COLORS series: the black paper sleeve, the ® mark, and the inks. Did you see the pattern inside the black sleeve? Isn’t that sick? I want it as a wallpaper. Like, real wallpaper around my humble Field Notes shrine. And the ® mark on the cover? It is hard to miss. Quick search at US Patent and Trademark Office (not linking it. I’ve had to deal with this site a few times before. One of the worst sites EVER) leads me to believe that they finally got it registered this year, and I understand why it’s added. Visually, it’s going to take some time for me to get used to. You can spot it on the inside and outside cover on the back, too. So tiny! Don’t strain your eyes!

This is the first time in COLORS that we’re seeing Sappi McCoy paper for the covers and Saphira inks, which are used on both the covers and the innards. You might call me a party pooper or a cynic but I do appreciate Field Notes trying new things. Like new printers, new papers, new inks. New fluorescent inks. How the heck do you even make these.

No doubt Unexposed is a fun and special edition, not to be missed by any Field Notes fan. The original size format is back and with the soft-touch coating, it's even more portable. It might even be an awesome conversation starter. But if my house was burning down and I had a split second to grab a pack of FN, Unexposed would not be my first choice. Except, maybe it might be the only one I can spot?

Hey, what’s that ® thing doing there?

Reticle graph comparison: Unexposed (top) is slightly lighter gray than Night Sky (bottom).

Some fun (for me) details:

• Unexposed (Fall 2014) is the 24th in the COLORS series.
• Item Number: FNC-24
• Edition size: 60,000 books printed in August 2014. Does that mean 10,000 per color?
• Cover: Sappi McCoy 100#C in Silk White with soft touch-coating, printed in six different fluorescent, soy-based Saphira inks. Each book is printed in two colors (reversed on inside covers):
  • blue book with pink text
  • pink book with yellow text
  • yellow book with purple text (see the pattern so far?)
  • purple book with green text
  • green book with orange text
  • orange book with blue text
• Paper inside: Finch Paper Opaque Smooth 50#T in “Bright White”, the usual
• Reticle grid inside: Pantone Cool Gray 2 soy-based Saphira ink
• Belly band: none. Black paper sleeve instead.
• Staples color: silver
• Film: Field Notes COLORS Fall 2014 Edition (bleep!)

My Favorite “Practical Applications”:

• #03. Neon Sign Sketches
• #11. Hungrybear9562 Quotes
• #26. Favorite Phosphorescents
• #27. Minds Blown

Which out of 6 colors is your favorite? It’s a toss-up between the pink and the purple one for me.

Quick green comparison. From left: Balsam Fir, Day Game, Grass Stain Green, Soybeans from National Crop, neon green from Summer Camp. Unexposed’s green is more neon than Summer Camp’s green!